Groups of language learners, young and old, meet in immersive environments like OpenSim, Second Life or Minecraft and are asked to build a spaceship together. Or a village, or a power plant. They come from Italy, Finnland and Germany and need to communicate in English to achieve the lofty goals. Can building in OpenSim provide a venue to communicate in English in real-time? This potential will be explored in EXCALIBUR, a new EU funded project to come in 2022.

By Heike Philp